We believe the Bible to be the divinely inspired Word of God and the supreme and final authority in doctrine and practice. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter and is therefore trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:21; John 17:17)

We believe there is one and only one living and true God. He is an eternal, intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. He has revealed himself in triune relationship. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are each God, and that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are each a distinct person. (Deut. 6:4; Matt. 28:19-20; 2 Cor. 13:14; see also 1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 2:9; Acts 5:3-4)

We believe man was created innocent and, in the image, and likeness of God. Set apart as His image bearers, every human being is sacred from the moment of conception to their last breath of life. All men and all women, bearing the image of God, are meant to represent God in His creation. God declares the created order to be very good, distinguishing men and women as His agents to care for, manage and govern over it. They enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus and are both called to move beyond passive self-indulgence to significant private and public engagement in family, church, and civic life. Adam and Eve were made to complement each other in a one-flesh union in the covenant of marriage that establishes the only God-ordained pattern of sexual relations for men and women. In God’s wise purposes, men and women are not simply interchangeable, but rather they complement each other in mutually enriching ways. (Gen. 1:26-28; 2:17-18; Ps. 139:13-16; Matt. 19:4-9; Rom. 1:21-22; Eph. 5:22-33)

Being deceived by the subtle temptation of the Serpent, Adam and Eve willingly disobeyed the command of God and sinned, bringing both physical and spiritual death to themselves and their posterity, inheriting a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Man can do nothing to merit God’s favor, and as such, is in need of salvation. We believe that mankind’s sinful nature is rebellious toward God and His good design for life and worship. Mankind’s rebellion causes confusion about good and evil, and brings harm to people, ultimately ending in judgment, despair, and death. Only the grace of God through the finished work of Jesus can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. (Gen. 3:19; Isa. 59:1-2; Rom. 6:23; Eph. 2:1-3; Gal. 5:16-21)

We believe salvation is wholly a gift of God and his grace offered through the finished work of Christ. It is freely offered to anyone who would repent of their sin and place their faith in Jesus. Salvation does involve the redemption of the whole man and includes four concepts:

We believe the Church is the bride of Christ and is made up of all believers across time and location who have acknowledged Jesus as Lord and Savior. The mission of the Church is found in Jesus’s command to go and make disciples of all nations and is fulfilled through the ministry of baptism and teaching. Believers are exhorted to gather together in local congregations to devote themselves to biblical instruction, prayer, worship, fellowship, service, and the observance of the ordinances of the Church: water baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper. (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 2:42-47; Eph. 5:25-27; Rev. 21:2-3)

We believe the souls of believers in Jesus Christ do, at death, immediately pass into His presence, and there remain with Him until the resurrection of our earthly bodies at His coming for the Church, when our souls and imperishable bodies shall be with Him forever in glory. We believe the souls of unbelievers remain after death in constant misery in Hades until the final judgment of the Great White Throne at the close of the millennium when soul and body reunited shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting separation from the presence of the Lord (Luke 16:19-26; 23:43; 1 Cor. 15:42-44; 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23; 2 Thes. 1:7-9; Rev. 20:11-15)